The three days of reduced new Ebola cases in Sierra Leone changed on Friday and today as the numbers have increased, underlining the fact that the international community needs to move faster than they are doing presently. They are doing well but it is still not enough yet, given the scale of this present Ebola outbreak.
After the new cases reached a disturbing 90s on Monday and Tuesday , the numbers dropped to the 40s on Wednesday and Thursday but rose back to the 90s mark on Friday and today. Bombali , Port Loko and the Western Area are the troubled spots but it is also troubling that Kailahun and Kenema , which had been recording 0 cases have started reporting new cases, as seen in today’s report. This means that those forecasting the progress of this outbreak should stop sending out conflicting opinions that would create a false sense of security.
Even the being acclaimed decline in Liberia has been described by MSF as illusory. SEE REPORT UNDERNEATH.
National Ebola Response Centre (NERC)
PRESS RELEASE
EBOLA OUTBREAK UPDATES—November 1, 2014
DISCHARGED CASES
• Total Survived and Released Patients = 816
NEW CASES
• New Confirmed cases = 95 as follows:
Kailahun = 3
Kenema = 2
Kono = 0
Bombali = 15
Kambia = 1
Koinadugu = 0
Port Loko = 22
Tonkolili = 2
Bo = 0
Bonthe = 0
Moyamba = 0
Pujehun = 0
Western Area Urban = 33, Western Area Rural = 17
CUMULATIVE CASES
• Cumulative confirmed cases = 3,938 as follows:
Kailahun = 554
Kenema = 490
Kono =39
Bombali = 570
Kambia = 39
Koinadugu = 15
Port Loko = 557
Tonkolili = 210
Bo = 180
Bonthe = 2
Moyamba = 96
Pujehun = 28
Western Area Urban = 648, Western Area Rural = 510
CUMULATIVE DEATHS
• Total cumulative confirmed death is 1070
• Probable cases = 79
• Probable deaths = 208
• Suspected cases = 596
• Suspected deaths = 157
IMPORTANT NOTE
Ebola Emergency Account Details:
Account Number (Leones): 003001118285030109
Account Number (USD): 003001014138030145
All Cash Donations are deposited at the Ebola Emergency Account managed by the NERC, and kind donations (Medicines, Equipment, Supplies, etc.) are held at the Government Medical logistics stores, Freetown, by the Ebola Logistics team, for processing, storage and equitable distribution as required throughout the country.
Ebola Virus Disease Situation Report
ISSUED BY:
The Ministry of Health and Sanitation
For more information, please contact:
District level: District Health Management Team
National level: Directorate of Disease Prevention and Control,
E.mail: [email protected]
Website: www.health.gov.sl
Mobile: 117 (Toll free) by Timbo Special
____________________________________________
MSF warns Liberia’s Ebola ‘progress’ may be illusory
MONROVIA — Global aid agency Doctors Without Borders urged caution on Wednesday over claims of a slowdown in infections in Ebola-hit Liberia, saying the apparent drop could be due to poor management of the sick.
The warning follows an announcement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that data from a range of sources including funeral directors and treatment centres indicated lower admission rates and burials.
But the medical charity, known by its French initials MSF, warned that “mandatory cremation of dead bodies and a poor ambulance and referral system could also be reasons for this decrease in admissions”.
“It is too soon to draw conclusions on the reduction of Ebola cases in Monrovia,” said MSF head of mission in Liberia Fasil Tezera. “While the number of admissions in MSF’s 250-bed Monrovia Ebola centre have dropped to around 80, we do not have a full picture of the extent of the outbreak and estimates might not be reliable.”
An MSF spokeswoman in Dakar said many people in the capital were calling the Ebola hotline to report that they were sick but were not being picked up due to a lack of ambulances and were going missing from the statistics.
“The present epidemic is unpredictable: we have seen a lull in cases in one area only to see the numbers spike again later,” Mr Faisal said. “More aid is needed on the ground. It’s time now to step up contact tracing, safe body management practices and community surveillance.”
WHO assistant directorgeneral Bruce Aylward said in Geneva on Wednesday that while labs were seeing a “plateauing or slight decline” in the number of confirmed cases, the crisis was far from over. Dr Aylward added that he was “terrified that the information will be misinterpreted and that people will begin to think Ebola is under control”.
The Ebola outbreak that has been ravaging west Africa has claimed 4,922 lives, according to the latest WHO update. The vast majority of deaths were in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Dr Aylward said the number of Ebola cases registered worldwide had soared to 13,703 — up from just over 10,000 reported by the WHO on Saturday — but he said the increase was mainly due to previously unreported cases being added to the statistics. Liberia has counted 6,535 cases, Sierra Leone 5,235 and Guinea — where the outbreak began late last year — 1,906, he said.
Neighbouring Mali, where a two-year-old girl died from Ebola following a long bus ride from Guinea, has not yet detected any new infections, he added.
His cautious optimism on Liberia came a day after the Red Cross offered hope that progress was being made in the battle against the killer virus, noting a sharp drop in the burials it was being called on to carry out.
Health authorities in Liberia welcomed the apparent slowdown but echoed the call for caution.
Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyensuah said that even if it managed to achieve no new cases, Liberia would not be able to consider itself Ebola-free until neighbours Guinea and Sierra Leone had eradicated the virus. “We cannot do this alone — we have to do it regionally. Liberia went down around April, and we never had a case for about 60 days, but then Guinea and Sierra Leone were still reporting, so we had resurgence and reoccurrence.”
He said Liberia, too, had evidence of a slowdown, with burials less frequent, lab confirmations down and reports of new cases “decreasing exponentially”.
AFP
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